Canagarajah, A. Suresh. "Safe Houses in the Contact Zone: Coping Strategies of African-American Students in the Academy." CCC 48.2 (1997): 173-196.

Abstract:

Using Pratt's contact zone theory as his lens, Canagarajah describes the historical and socio-cultural structures of domination and resistance underlying the negotiating strategies subordinate groups use in intercultural communications. He suggests that minority students in an academic setting employ some of the same strategies, including constructing "safe houses" to resolve some of the conflicts they face. He further suggests that identifying and understanding the literate activities of safe house spaces opens up pedagogical possibilities inside and outside those spaces.

Anderson, Virginia. "Confrontational Teaching and Rhetorical Practice." CCC 48.2 (1997): 197-214.

Abstract:

Anderson enters the debate about the ethics of teaching politically activism in the writing classroom (Maxine Hairston). She examines the activist teaching of Dale Bauer and James Berlin in rhetorical, rather than activist, terms. She suggests that conscious pedagogical use of stasis theory, particularly the first levels of "conjecture" and "definition," takes the teacher out of the position of defending personal political opinions and commitments, leading students effectively into stasis theory levels of "value" and "action."

Leonard, Elisabeth Anne. "Assignment #9. A Text Which Engages the Socially Constructed Identity of Its Writer." CCC 48.2 (1997): 215-230.

Abstract:

Leonard's narrative traces her development as a composition instructor coming from an M.F.A and Ph.D. in creative writing and English literature. Emphasizing the work of Elbow and Bartholomae, among other expressivist compositionists, she explores the balance between teaching critical and creative reading and writing.

Marshall, Margaret J. "Marking the Unmarked: Reading Student Diversity and Preparing Teachers." CCC 48.2 (1997): 231-248.

Abstract:

Marshall challenges the center-margins metaphor as perpetuating an "unmarked center," where class and literacy experience get overridden by assumptions about white dominant cultural values and white middle-class literacy learning. She considers these assumptions by examining the writing of two first-year writing students, pointing out that teacher training should include ways to read student writing rhetorically for the ways in which students in the "middle" are not all the same.

Smith, Summer. The Genre of the End Comment: Conventions in Teacher Responses to Student Writing." CCC 48.2 (1997): 249-268.

Abstract:

Identifying the "end comment genre," Smith inquires into the features, patterns, and effectiveness of teacher end comments on student essays. Her study sample contains 208 end comments collected from ten teaching assistants at Penn State. Her analysis leads to suggestions for resisting stable conventions of commenting in order to achieve more effective communication between teacher and student about the student's writing.

Bizzaro, Patrick, et al. "Interchanges: Reimagining Response." CCC 48.2 (1997): 269-283.

France, Alan W., Donald Lazere, and Kurt Spellmeyer. "Interchanges: Theory, Populism, Teaching." CCC 48.2 (1997): 284-296.

Olson, Gary A. "Critical Pedagogy and Composition Scholarship." Rev. of Rhetorics, Poetics, and Cultures: Refiguring College English Studies by James A. Berlin; Working Theory: Critical Composition Studies for Students and Teachers by Judith Goleman; Eloquent Dissent: The Writings of James Sledd by James Sledd and Richard D. Freed. CCC 48.2 (1997): 297-303.